May 2026 Volume 8

EQUIPMENT & TECHNOLOGY

“That distinction matters,” he continued. “Cold-billet handling is often where automation feels most straightforward. Once the material is hot, the difficulty rises fast.” Vision Makes Billet Automation Practical What allows robotic billet handling to work in the real world is vision. Billets in a bin do not present themselves neatly. They overlap, tilt, roll, and settle unpredictably. A robot cannot simply move to one fixed point and expect a successful pick every time. It needs a sensing system that can identify a viable part, determine orientation, and confirm that the billet can be grasped securely. In many applications, that same system can also verify basic features such as billet length or diameter before the material enters the furnace. At that stage, the goal is not full metrology. It is reliable handling and basic validation. Still, even here, the hidden challenge is often not the robot or the camera. It is the gripper. “The EOAT design is surprisingly the most technically challenging aspect of the system,” Trizzano says. “Anyone can design a magnet to pick up a part, but it takes experience to design a magnet that can pick up a large variety of parts in a robust manner.” That is a useful reminder for any plant evaluating its first automation project. A system that looks simple on paper can become difficult in production if it has to cope with varying billet sizes, real-world bin presentation, wear, scale, or tight cycle demands. The best billet-handling cells are rarely generic. They are engineered around the specifics of the product, the furnace interface, the bin geometry, and the required throughput. Where Automation Gets Harder If billet handling is often the first step, hot-part transfer is where automation begins to show both its value and its complexity. Once a billet leaves the heater, everything gets harder. The material is hot. It does not slide as easily. Detection becomes more difficult. Timing grows more critical. And the automation has to keep up with the pace of the press while working around die lubrication, shifting part geometry, and the realities of the forge line. BiLLy Paris noted that many shops are fairly aligned through the heating and sorting stage, but automation implementation tends to taper off after billet sorting. “Many plants automate first-station loading, while others still hand-spot billets for some jobs or under certain conditions,” he said. “Beyond that point, the challenge grows because the forging changes shape at each die progression, and each stage can demand different handling requirements.” That is why hot-part automation is less about isolated robot motion and more about full process integration. It is not enough for a robot to pick up a hot part. The automation has to work in sync with the heater, the press, die lubrication, sensors, conveyors, and safety logic. It has to recover from faults. It has to tolerate environmental noise. And it has to do all of that without dragging down line performance. The plants seeing the biggest gains are often the ones applying automation where manual handling has become clearly untenable. Paris also mentioned very large, heavy billets and forgings as one area where the ergonomic and safety benefits become especially obvious. That reality is familiar in forging. Some tasks persist not because

they are ideal for people, but because they have historically been left to skilled operators who learned how to make them work. Automation is forcing a harder question: should people still be doing those jobs at all? Not Every Job Should Be Automated First Automation is not automatically the best answer for every application. “For smaller parts, operators can often process them faster by hand than with a robot. In shops with shorter production runs, manual handling through the die progression may remain the more practical choice. Automation brings its own setup requirements: programs must be loaded, grippers may need to be changed or adjusted, and die-lubrication patterns may need to be established,” said BiLLy Paris. “On some jobs, that setup effort can consume a significant portion of a shift. For short runs, it may make more sense to get the press running and keep the automation parked.” That is an important reality check. The best automation projects are usually not the ones chosen because the technology sounds advanced. They are the ones chosen because the operating problem is clear, painful, and measurable. In forging, that often means the strongest first projects are the jobs nobody wants: hand-loading large billets into an induction feed chute, hand-spotting billets into the press window, or tending hot trim operations where repetition, awkward posture, and proximity to danger all come together. Better Controls Count, Too Automation in forging is not just about robots. BiLLy Paris explains, “For plants running older presses, one of the most practical first steps may be controls modernization. Industry suppliers indicate old multi-pushbutton operator panels are a surprisingly serious problem. In some plants, operators still work from panels crowded with dozens of buttons, selector switches, and indicator lights, often with inconsistent layouts from press to press. In a hot, dirty environment, that inconsistency can create confusion and increase the chance of operator error.” “Replacing those panels with standardized touchscreen HMIs can improve visibility, simplify operation, and reduce the likelihood of mistakes. A modern HMI can present only the controls needed for the task at hand—setup, jogging, die change, or production— rather than forcing the operator to work across a cluttered panel full of unrelated functions,” said Paris. That may not look as dramatic as a new robot cell, but it can be a meaningful part of the automation journey because it makes the process more understandable, more standardized, and often safer. That broader point matters. In forging, automation does not begin and end with mechanical handling. It also includes the control architecture, the interface design, the interlocks, and the logic that make the process more repeatable and less dependent on memory or improvisation. Inspection Is the Next Layer Material handling may be the most visible face of automation in forging, but inspection may become one of the most influential over time. At the front end of the process, a relatively simple vision system may be enough to confirm billet length and diameter. But once a part has been forged, inspection becomes far more complex.

FIA MAGAZINE | MAY 2026 19